By Jose Otero - Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games has addressed publisher Take-Two Interactive’s decision to shut down GTA modding software OpenIV.
Take-Two sent a cease-and-desist letter to the developers behind the OpenIV modding tool. Rockstar Games issued the following statement to IGN:
"Take-Two's actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately, OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players."
On June 14, OpenIV lead developer GooD-NTS posted about receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Take-Two on GTAforums — a fan-organized message board community. In the post, he acknowledged the long history of modding and said it “always was a ‘gray zone.’" In the post, GooD-NTS outlined the methods used for developing OpenIV and he claims them mod did not mess with GTA Online.
Despite disagreeing with Take-Two’s reasoning, the developer agreed with their claims and stopped distribution of OpenIV.
"Going to court will take at least few months of our time and huge amount of efforts, and, at best, we'll get absolutely nothing," GooD-NTS said. Since the posting and ban of OpenIV, fans have posted negative reviews on the GTA 5 Steam Store page.
Another modding website, Force Hax, which also hosted OpenIV, has altered their website to only display the following statement:
"After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, effective immediately we are ceasing all maintenance, development and distribution of the Force Hax cheat menu services. We will be donating our proceeds to charity and we apologize for any and all problems Force Hax services have caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online Community."